"It"

When I started making comics, I always worked in that Hugo Pratt method, working in order, from page one onward, going panel by panel until the thing was done. This evolved into an assembly line procedure during the making of the original THB series, where I'd pencil, letter, ink and finish 16 pages at a time, using those two rows of eight as if they were a gigantic comics tableau. This is the most effective method for producing comics I know of, resulting in my being able to finish seventy completely print ready pages in one month, my most productive month ever.
My interest level for given images fluctuates throughout a work period, say, a month and I find it easier to work on many pages at once. Also, as my schedule became more hectic, I had no choice but to work on more than one project at once. That way is like skipping rope. I woke up that morning after Jenn's party knowing I'd worn my time down to a little wire, until it was as if a command from above announced, "You will quit fooling around, you will chain yourself to your drawing board and finish the fucking thing!"
Despite that, I didn't have "it" that day. "It" is that precious quantity which lets you make artwork which is better than good and sometimes "it" allows for work which is truly inspired, but I learned from working on monthly deadlines for Kodansha and Dark Horse, you couldn't depend on "it". I was capricious and wispy, disappearing for periods of time, sometimes only half returning, or returning for only half as long as you want it. It's also a problem to create work on deadlines without "it". That is a killer. Too much of that kind of thing will beat you into a peculiar kind of self-loathing, hard to describe, but which makes your face in the mirror unbearable for yourself to look at. But you can get "it" to come and stay with you when you have great discipline and work hard without distractions. That is why I like working for three days straight.
Those first few pages of Escapo are pure "it", and that set a standard I had to follow, which meant to keep on working until "it" came back, which "it" always does eventually. When I'm most discouraged and begin thinking I have no talent at all, I recognize that as the lowest point of the process of making art and ride it out. Looking back on Kirby's work, or Toth's, they seemed to always had "it", even in their obvious mistakes and sloppy work. I get mad at myself, then, for the vain luxury of complaint. You have no excuse, I say, or something in me says. You live in a part of the world where you can do just about anything you want. Not everything but anything. No one is firing mortar shells at your block. There are no attack dogs, no mustard gases are ruining you. No one is poaching you for your tusks. You've got no excuse. So I try brewing coffee, then change the music on the CD player. Nothing helps. So I leave my place. I don't do laundry, which is dirty and shoved into a narrow crevice in my closet. I don't do my dishes, dirty and even dusty in my sink. I don't pay the bills, in their eternally replenishing stack by the mailslot. I don't put gas in my car, which is always on empty. Instead, then, as I do now, when the deadline stress is too great, i wait until I'm hungry, then, go eat Indian food.
That day, I called Scott and we went to this place called Taj Mahal to eat Chicken Tikka Masala, spicy, with Naan, no butter. Aloo Matar, and Raita. Mint chutney, too. Lamb Korma, or a sizzling Tandoori platter. Or spicy curry chicken. And Chai or a King Fisher, or a Flying Horse. No dessert. Not long after he and I started working together, we established this custom of eating a big Indian dinner as we were about to enter a serious deadline period. This ritual is intended to brace yo for the hard week ahead, and let you celebrate it, too.
After all, deadlines are a part of this lifestyle, take it or leave it. If you can't do the time, don't do the crime. And if you sometimes take a week, or even two, off and do absolutely nothing, you only really steal from some other week yet to come, and regardless, every third of fourth week seems to be this sleepless, fitful, awful deadline time, with fifteen hour a day work weeks. And you must learn to love this. It's your lot, your wife, your price. You must learn to love this stress and learn to how to burn with it, not be burnt by it, otherwise it is a miserable servitude without much recompense.
This is your garden, now cultivate it.

Paul Pope, from THB Circus

2010 / 2011

2010 foi um daqueles anos de altos e baixos difíceis de explicar.
Começou tremido e acaba no meio de muito trabalho, como algumas boas perspectivas para o ano que chega.
Por agora, resta arrumar este ano na memória com uma noite de festa e alegria.
O que vem a seguir, logo se enfrenta.

Bom Ano a todos.
Encontramo-nos em 2011.



2010 was one of those years with hard to explain highs and lows.
It started shaky and it ends in the midst of a lot of work, with some good perspectives for the coming year.
For now, all it's left is to put this year to rest in my memory with a night of happy partying.

Happy New Year to everyone.
We'll meet again in 2011.

FoF Passo a passo | FoF Step by Step

O blog Fistful of Fanart continua a sua viagem por referências geeks, desta vez com o contributo do nosso Marvel Wonder Boy, Filipe Andrade, que nos presenteou com uma ilustração incrível da parelha mais improvável de todos os tempos, Hellboy e John Lennon.
Como se não bastasse, ele colocou no seu blog pessoal um processo da ilustração desde a ideia inicial ao produto acabado.
Para quem gosta, como eu, de ver detalhes do "passo a passo" de cada ilustrador, aqui fica um bom post.


The blog Fistful of Fanart continues its journey through geek references, this time with the contribution of our very own Marvel Wonder Boy, Filipe Andrade, who gifted us with an incredible illustration of the unlikeliest team-up ever, Hellboy and John Lennon.
Like that wasn't enough, he posted on his personal blog a process of the illustration from his basic idea to the finished product.
For who, like me, likes to see each illustrator's "step by step" details, here's a great post.

Penthouse Magazine

Tenho uma ilustração na nova edição portuguesa da revista Penthouse. A ilustração abaixo acompanha um artigo sobre a Igreja de Satanás do ínfame Anton Szandor LaVey, um artigo adaptado da edição original por sua vez ilustrado nem mais nem menos do que pela lenda Coop.

Obrigado ao Basílio Santos e ao pessoal da Penthouse pelo convite.
Esta edição tem o interesse extra de ter trabalhos de mais dois ilustradores do TLS, Patrícia Furtado e Jorge Coelho.




I have a illustration in the new portuguese edition of Penthouse magazine. The illustration below accompanies an article about the Church of Satan of the infamous Anton Szandor LaVey, an article adapted from the original edition in its turn illustrated by none other than the legend Coop.


Thanks to Basílio Santos and the guys at Penthouse for the invite.
Thsi edition has the extra interest of having the works of two other TLS illustrators, Patrícia Furtado and Jorge Coelho.

Women of Marvel #2

Está na net o preview de um comic book da Marvel com participação minha.

Women of Marvel #2 contém uma história curta desenhada e colorida pelo Nuno Plati e com separações minhas.

Dezembro nas lojas especializadas.




It's online now the preview for a Marvel comic book with a litle contribution from me.

Women of Marvel #2 has inside a Shanna the She-Devil short story drawn and colored by Nuno Plati in which I did the color separations.

It hits the stores in December.

Sinfonia Quadripolar

Se moram no Porto, vou estar presente este fim de semana na inauguração de uma exposição colectiva de autores editados pela editora El Pep.
A exposição chama-se Sinfonia Quadripolar e vai estar patente de dia 20 de Novembro a dia 2 de Janeiro de 2011 na galeria Mundo Fantasma, no Shopping Center Brasília, Av. da Boavista 267 1º Loja 509-510 Porto.

Apareçam!

Mais informações em: Blog Mundo Fantasma

Fistful of Fanart

Como se já não tivesse coisas de sobra para fazer, dei corpo a uma ideia que nasceu mais ou menos durante a viagem à NY Comiccon em Outubro.
A ideia era juntar os talentos de todos e fazer o que fazemos normalmente nos nossos blogs pessoais para mostrar o nosso trabalho, para aquecer a mão, ou simplesmente por diversão, que é desenhar pin-ups ou esboços de personagens existentes, algumas clássicas, outras obscuras, mas normalmente favoritas de tudo o que lemos durante as nossas vidas como bedéfilos.

O resultado é o blog Fistful of Fanart, que para já conta com as contribuições do grande Jorge Coelho e uma minha.
Todas as semanas, uma nova entrada de um artista diferente irá atacar personagens mais ou menos conhecidas de todos.
Aqui fica a minha entrada para esta semana.
The Badger, uma personagem criada por Mike Baron.




As if I didn't have enough stuff to do, I've given life to an idea that sort of was born during the last trip to the Ny Comiccon in October.
The idea was to assemble all our talents and do what we normally do on our personal blogs to show our work, as warm-ups, or simply for fun, which is to draw pin-ups and sketches of existing characters, some classic, others obscure, but normally favorites of everything we read during our lives as comic book lovers.

The end result is the blog Fistful of Fanart, that has started off with a contribution from the great Jorge Coelho and from me.
Once a week, a new entry from a different artist will tackle characters more or less known by all.
Here's my entry for this week.
The Badger, a character created by Mike Baron.

Kid Kthulu

Fan art de Kid Kthulu, uma personagem de Thomas Perkins, um concept designer e ilustrador com um talento descomunal e uma simpatia ainda maior.
Ele tem feito nos últimos tempos um exercício de capas para comics imaginários que eu adorava ver em papel no futuro próximo. É incrível como gente talentosa faz coisas mais interessantes numa brincadeira do que a maior dos profissionais faz em trabalho a sério.

Ele faz anos hoje, vão dar-lhe os parabéns.



Fan art of Kid Kthulu, a character by Thomas Perkins, a concept designer and illustrator with a phenomenal talent and a very nice guy.
He's been doing an exercise in recent months of posting covers for imaginary commics which I'd love to see come to life in a near future. It's incredible how talented people do stuff for fun that's way more interesting than most professionals do in real jobs.

It's his birthday, go congratulate him.

Post-NYCC Chill

Acabou a 2ª aventura por Nova Iorque e já estou de volta a casa para absorver tudo o que se passou e cair de cabeça no trabalho mais uma vez.
Como a outra experiência, esta viagem foi rápida e bastante preenchida (até um pouco caótica às vezes), mas os objectivos iniciais foram cumpridos.

Pontos altos da convenção:
- ter o trabalho que apresentei bem recebido por público e editores;
- encontrar novos e velhos amigos no Artist Alley;
- poder espiar o trabalho do Adam Hughes que estava sentado nas nossas costas no Artist Alley;
- passar os dias na convenção a desenhar commissions;
- anotar lições para futuras convenções;

Obrigado a todos os que apareceram nas mesas R-17/18, que viram e gostaram do nosso trabalho, que pediram desenhos e prints e gastaram do vosso tempo de convenção a conhecer-nos um pouco melhor. Espero voltar a encontrá-los brevemente no mesmo sítio. Vocês fizeram a nossa convenção.

De volta à base, o trabalho nos meus projectos continua e o embalo ganho durante a NYCC tem que ser mantido.
Há ideias para escrever, desenhos para fazer e muita página de BD pela frente nos próximos meses.



The 2nd adventure in New York is over and I'm back home absorbing everything and falling into the grind once more.
Like the previous experience, this trip was fast and full (even chaotic at times), but the initial goals were accomplished.

Highnotes of the convention:
- having the work I showed there well accepted by editors and passers-by:
- finding new and old friends at Artist Alley;
- get to spy on Adam Hughes' work, as he had his table right behind ours;
- spending the con days drawing commissions;
- getting tips for the next conventions;

Thank you to all of you who dropped by tables R-17/18, who saw and liked our work, who asked for our sketches and prints, and who spent a little of their convention time to get to know us better. I hope I'm able to catch you at the same place very soon. You made our convention.

Back to my base, the work on my projects continues and the momentum gained at NYCC has to hold up.
There're ideas to write, drawings to be made and a whole lot of comic book pages to draw in the next few months.

NY Comic Con 2010

O tempo está quase no fim para ter tudo pronto para a NY Comic Con, e finalmente acabei o material que queria levar para a convenção.
Os dias têm sido de stress, correria, preparações, constipações, e muito muito trabalho, com algum gozo de ver ideias a crescer à mistura.

Entretanto, saíram as colocações das mesas no Artist Alley, e eu e o resto da secção portuguesa da Con vamos estar nas mesas R-17 e R-18.
Apareçam por lá para ver o nosso trabalho, dizer olá e conversar connosco.
Vamos ter prints, originais e as habituais "commissions" à venda nas mesas.

Este será provavelmente o último post antes da viagem, por isso, aqui ficam abaixo algumas imagens que podem encontrar por lá.
Mais novidades no regresso.



Time is running out to have everything ready for the NY Comic Con, and I've finally wrapped up the material I want to bring with me.
The last few days have been filled with stress, running around, colds, and lots and lots of work, with a good dose of fun watching your ideas come alive.

In the meantime, the table numbers for Artist Alley are out, and me and the portuguese comittee will be sitting at tables R-17 and R-18.
Drop by to check out our work, say hi and hang out with us.
We'll have prints, originals and the usual commissions for sale at our tables.

This will probably be the last post before the trip, so here are some of the images you should look for at Artist Alley this year.
See you when I get back home.